Tennis - Li Na becomes first Chinese player to reach semi-finals of the US Open

Tennis - Li Na has become the first Chinese player to reach the semi-finals of the US Open after a hard fought three set win over Russian Ekaterina Makarova on Tuesday in New York. The fifth seeded Li Na, a former French Open champion, seemed to be cruising with a 64 31 lead but Makarova fought back to take the second set in a tiebreaker.

Li Na recovered to win the third set 6-2 and advance to the semis where she will meet world no. 1 Serena Williams. Li Na improves to 4-0 lifetime against Makarova. Commenting after the match, "I'm not so happy with the way I played today.

Today was the first time I was feeling so nervous. It started from the beginning of the match until the end of the match. But I was happy that at least I was fighting a lot on the court. Even if I wasn't playing my best tennis, I was still fighting and I'm still in the tournament.

I think that's something even better than the last round. Even when I lost the second set, I still felt like, 'Okay, it's still one set all. You still have a chance. Let's just try to go point by point and hang in there, and just stay out there on the court and fight." .